Senate approves June 12 as Democracy Day

The Senate yesterday approved the proposal to make June 12 every year as Nigeria’s Democracy Day. The approval followed the concurrence by the Senate with a bill passed by the House of Representatives on the matter.

President Muhammadu Buhari had last year declared June 12 as Democracy Day as a way of immortalizing late MKO Abiola, who was believed to have won the June 12, 1993, presidential election.

To give the president’s declaration a legal backing, two members of the House of Reps, Edward Pwajok (PDP, Plateau) and Kayode Oladele (APC, Ogun) sponsored a bill for June 12 to be recognized as Democracy Day by law.

The bill, which sought an amendment to the Public Holidays Act, was passed by the House in March and transmitted to the Senate for concurrence.

At yesterday’s plenary, Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe), moved for the Senate to concur with the bill as passed by the House, which all the senators agreed to.